The smartphone owning China's market isn't the iPhone, it's the Coolpad. And the local Shenzen-based subsidiary behind it is less than 1% of Apple's size.
Lily Kuo describes the Coolpad, part of China Wireless Technologies, for Quartz:
The Coolpad has clearly found a sweet spot with consumers in the world's largest market who have disposable income but not that much. Still, don't expect Apple to give up hope on reaching China's middle class. Apple CEO Tim Cook envisions the company doing well there, so well it "would become the company's largest market," says Kuo. To wit, the company has said sales in China doubled in 2010 and 2011, though they slowed the past year.
Apple reports its quarterly earnings Jan. 23.
[via Quartz]
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